New York Lays Off 3,496 County Jobs

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has announced the county-by-county breakdown of the more than 3000 jobs that will be lost during the newest round of layoffs for New York State. As it turns out almost 30 percent of the 3,496 jobs that are slated to be cut by the state come from Albany County. Other counties that are expect to be hit hard by the cuts include New York County. Erie county, Broome county and Duchess county. For a break down of the job losses by individual county check the listings at the end of this piece.

The layoffs were begun last week, with official notices being sent out after the Public Employees Federation, a union for civil servants in the state of New York; choose to vote down a tentative contract agreement. This agreement, which could have prevented at least some of the current layoffs, may still be re-negotiated in time. It would not be the first time that civil servants layoffs were reversed by the signing of a contract with the union.

It is important to note that the number of layoffs that are being suggested by the state overall are much higher than the number proposed at the county level. The county level of layoffs only consists of about one third of the total number layoffs that will need to be made. The total number of layoffs that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration said was needed in order to balance the states budget will total roughly 9,800 jobs lost. No word was given on how this plan may be mitigated by any state employees retiring this year.

The governor told state employees that because the money needed to balance the budget jobs would be cut, if the agreement was not ratified during the vote, in early June of this year. The changes needed to keep everyone in work would have required about $450 million in concessions from the workforce. When the initial announcement was made the union suggested that the governor was not negotiating with the union in good faith. That announcement was also considered a radical change from the governor’s previous position, in which he stated that he hoped to come to a balanced budget that did not require the state to make any major job cutbacks.

The Public Employees Federation is an organization that represents over 56,000 professional, scientific and technical employees in various states.

Now, as we discussed earlier, you will find a breakdown of job losses that each county can expect in regards to its civil servants.

Albany — 998
Bronx — 49
Broome — 129
Cattaraugus — 8
Cayuga — 14
Chautauqua — 2
Chemung — 34
Clinton — 5
Columbia — 3
Delaware — 7
Dutchess — 115
Erie — 178
Essex — 15
Franklin — 51
Genesee — 12
Greene — 5
Jefferson — 49
Kings — 74
Livingston — 5
Monroe — 184
Nassau — 22
New York — 345
Niagara — 5
Oneida — 86
Onondaga — 227
Orange — 37
Orleans — 7
Otsego — 2
Queens — 87
Rensselaer — 49
Richmond — 129
Rockland — 132
Saratoga — 7
Schenectady — 95
Seneca — 24
St. Lawrence — 51
Steuben — 27
Suffolk — 145
Sullivan — 12
Tompkins — 2
Ulster — 5
Warren — 2
Washington — 8
Wayne — 2
Westchester — 49
Wyoming — 5